It's the impression that I've gotten from every review of the subject, even from natives, so, "no basis in reality" seems like a stretch. At the very least, it is objectively true that people in these countries work fewer hours than Americans do. But I tend to believe that it extends beyond this, and that there is a fundamentally different approach to work in these countries than in America. If people here want the paradigm to be "work is work," then the sacrifice is that you carve out of the work-centered lifestyle Americans live more time and energy that work cannot touch.

If your contention is that Europe is not perfect in this regard, that's orthogonal to my point, which used those (perhaps idealized) examples as naught more than illustrations.